


In which Drew is a 'knight in shining ballet slippers'

by magicandlight



Series: The States [66]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Statetalia
Genre: Bisexual Disaster Alabama, Gen, Lesbian Wives FL/GA, Marble Hornets References, Pre-Relationship, for AL/MS, hard of hearing character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-23 20:17:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20212000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandlight/pseuds/magicandlight
Summary: Josh doesn’t go out like this often, and he’s reminded why the second he steps through the door.It’s so loud in the club that he immediately wants to rip off his hearing aids. He settles for adjusting the volume.He’d much rather be watching the new horror movie he got.





	In which Drew is a 'knight in shining ballet slippers'

**Author's Note:**

> this was for an anon request I got:_ Imagine Josh getting hit on by someone and Josh is uncomfortable and here comes Drew, Josh's knight in shining ballet slippers, being his fake boyfriend and getting the person to stop. MEANWHLE, Josh is over here like, "Not that I don't appreciate this but you are very attractive and I am a bisexual mess. I do not think I will be able to speak for a whole week- let alone NOT think- about this. Thanks a lot." (Scarlett gets a very annoying call at 1am from a sobbing Josh while he blabs about it.)_

Josh doesn’t go out like this often, and he’s reminded why the second he steps through the door.

It’s so loud in the club that he immediately wants to rip off his hearing aids. He settles for adjusting the volume. 

He’d much rather be watching the new horror movie he got.

“Good?” Scarlett has to shout to be heard over the music, and Josh suppresses a grimace. He can deal with this for a few hours, maybe even have some fun. He definitely won’t ruin Scarlett’s fun by being a miserable lump the entire time. He’d ridden with Scarlett and Flora because he didn’t want to drive, but this means he has no idea where the rest of the South is.

If it’s any consolation, Austin is probably almost as uncomfortable as Josh feels. It’s odd, but Mindy’s always been the one who was more comfortable in places like this.

At least he’s wearing his own worn and comfortable jeans, and not the skinny jeans Scarlett convinced him to wear last time. Josh doesn’t care how great they made his legs look, they were awful.

He isn’t really dressed for clubbing, though, and that only contributes to how out of place he feels. He’s wearing the ‘guess what’s battery-powered’ shirt Flora got him for his birthday with a flannel over it because it’s thirty degrees and scuffed red converse. His socks are patterned with those shitty Halloween vampire teeth, for god’s sake.

Flora pulls Scarlett away so they could dance after making sure he was good and had settled down at a table with his whiskey sour and his phone.

Josh is considering watching Marble Hornets again when someone raps on the tabletop to get his attention.

The guy _is _cute, but his smile is more of a smirk and Josh has spent so much time with Scarlett that he instinctively knows the look of an asshole.

“Hey, sweetheart, can I buy you a drink?”

Josh is glad he’s only taken a sip of his whiskey sour, and he gestures to it now, plastering a smile on. “Thank you, but I’ve already got one.”

Unfortunately, the guy sits down instead of leaving him alone.

Great.

~~~~~

Drew has known Josh for two hundred years, and he’s figured a few things out in that time.

Like, no Josh wasn’t as painfully straight as Drew used to think he was, he was just too in love with Scarlett to figure out when someone was flirting with him. And that he didn’t like people on the mostly deaf side, even after he got his hearing aids. That Josh mumbled to himself and signed when he talked.

He’s definitely noticed that Josh is probably more anxiety than person a good forty percent of the time.

Josh has a tendency to follow Scarlett around like a duckling because of his anxiety, so Drew is surprised when he bumps into her in the middle of the dancefloor with no sight of Josh anywhere around him. 

“Where’s your shadow?” Drew shouts over the awful trap music.

Scarlett pushes her hair back. “Josh is over at the table by the wall art. The one that looks like someone threw paint buckets at the wall. I was going to go check on him in a few minutes, actually.”

Scarlett gave him a look that suggested he should go check on Josh instead.

Drew laughed. “Yeah, I get the message, I’m going.”

~~~~~

Drew pauses when he notices the guy sitting with Josh, trying to figure out what sort of scenario this was. He ignores the tiny flare of jealousy, and focuses on Josh’s hands and the way he isn’t signing and how he keeps messing with his ears and then stopping like he’s considering ripping out his hearing aids and then rethinking it.

Josh sometimes talked about how it was tiring to wear them sometimes, how everything got so loud and overwhelming and sometimes the silence was better. There were days when his anxiety swallowed his voice whole and he didn’t talk at all.

The anxiety didn’t help him stand up for himself, and there was one of the grand ironies of Josh’s life: he could stand up for anyone but himself.

So he definitely wasn’t going to tell the guy bothering him to go away by himself.

~~~~~

Josh jumps when someone sits beside him, only relaxing when he recognizes Drew.

Drew drapes an arm over Josh’s shoulders, leaning in and kissing Josh’s cheek. “Play along,” He mutters, just loud enough for his hearing aids to pick up.

Josh’s brain has frozen, so it’d be pretty hard not to play along.

Drew swipes his drink, taking a sip before flicking his gaze over at the guy (what was his name, again?). “Hey, babe. Who’s this?”

Josh opens his mouth to reply before his brain catches up and completely short-circuits. _Babe?!??_

_ **Babe?!!!?!!?!??!?** _

Thankfully, the distinctly unhappy guy introduces himself.

Drew’s arm is still wrapped around Josh’s shoulders. Josh’s mind is so stuck on this fact, he doesn’t even notice when the guy leaves.

“Hello, earth to Joshua.”

Josh leans away when Drew waves a hand in front of his face. “Don’t do that.” He’s pretty sure he’s blushing, and Drew calling him Joshua doesn’t help.

“Sorry. You didn’t respond. You good? You wanted that guy to leave you alone, right?”

“Yeah. He interrupted Marble Hornets.”

Drew smiles. “You and that show, I swear.” He looks down for a moment before meeting Josh’s eyes again. “Seriously, though, you good? It’s kind of- loud in here.”

Josh keeps from reaching for his hearing aids, at least. “Good as it can be, I guess. I already turned them down.”

He couldn’t take them off. When it was just him or his family, he could deal with the vulnerability. If he took them off here, he’d spiral into an anxiety attack.

Drew gives him a considering look. “Come on, I want to see something.”

Josh forgets to ask what when Drew grabs his hand to lead him through the club.

~~~~~

It’s so much quieter in the upper level of the club, and Josh doesn’t know why he didn’t think of this earlier.

He’s doesn’t know why Drew hasn’t left yet, either.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Marble Hornets all the way through.”

“What?” 

“We could watch it.”

Josh stares at him. “I- Don’t you want to go hang out with others? Dance or something?”

Drew shrugs. “I think I do enough dancing as it is. And I want to hang out with _you_.”

It takes a moment for Josh to force a response out. “Cool. That’s cool. What part did you get to in Marble Hornets?”

Drew gives him a wry smile. “Um, halfway through the second episode?”

~~~~~~~~~~

“Hi, can you stop having a gay crisis in my backseat so you can tell Flora what kind of milkshake you want?” Scarlett asks. Scarlett had bugged Flora until she agreed to go through a drive-through on the way back to Josh’s. Technically, Scarlett was supposed to be driving, but Flora had mentioned something about peach martinis and Josh had stopped asking. 

Josh groans. “But-”

“Yes, we know about your massive crush on Drew and how he watched Marble Hornets with you and that was probably fulfilled some weird fantasy date of yours, but what kind of milkshake?”

Josh thinks for a moment. “Vanilla.”

“Like your sex life, right.”

Josh kicks the back off her seat as she snickers. Scarlett’s a lot sassier when she’s drunk, which is funnier when Josh isn't on the receiving end of it. “Like yours is any better!”

Flora thunks her head against the steering wheel. “We are in a drive-through and I am trying to order, why don’t you talk _louder_ to make sure everyone here hears you.”

Josh and Scarlett both go silent long enough for Flora to get the milkshakes.

Scarlett offers Flora a sip as soon as she gets the straw in, and if that isn’t true love Josh doesn’t know what is. “Alright, so continue with the gay crisis, it was entertaining.”

“When he called me babe to get that guy to go away I think my brain stopped functioning.”

Scarlett turns around to look at him. “He called you babe?” She looks at Flora. “He called him babe?”

“Dear god, help me.” Flora mumbles. “Scarlett, honey, what are you doing?”

“I’m looking for my phone so I can threaten Drew with my gardening shears.”

“Scarlett, no.”

“Scarlett yes,” Scarlett mumbles petulantly, before brightening. “You know, you’re right.”

Flora sighs in relief, and Scarlett continues.

“Why use gardening shears when I have a sword?”

“You can’t threaten him, how’ll I get him to like me back if you threaten him?” Josh cries out. 

“Scarlett, you can’t threaten Drew!” Flora says, snatching the phone and flinging it back so hard it goes behind the backseat into the trunk. 

“Flora.” Scarlett whines, dragging the syllables out into _Floraahhhh_. “He made a move on Josh.”

Josh frowns at his milkshake. “I don’t think it counts if it was to make a creepy guy go away.”

Scarlett turns around to give him a look while Flora rolls her eyes at him in the rearview.

Scarlett snorts and turns back around after a moment. 

“And I thought we were bad,” Scarlett whispers to Flora, who bursts into laughter. 

Josh kicks the back of Scarlett's seat again. "I hate both of you."

That just makes Scarlett laugh, too. 


End file.
